Dropship

The Dropship is a small space-capable aircraft used to rapidly deploy infantry and various types of vehicles on the battlefield. Infantry are deployed from the dropship by way of the burn-in, while vehicles are deployed via magnetic carrying pads on the 'belly' of the ship that unlatch the vehicle once the dropship has hovered a safe distance above the ground.

Dropships can be piloted by either human pilots or an onboard artificial intelligence, though onboard AI is the more preferred piloting system.

Older models did not have weapons, forcing human pilots to rely only on their wits and flying skiils, while ground troops were forced to ensure a landing zone was completely clear of enemy forces; any remaining enemy unit posed a significant risk.

However, in the days following the Outer Rim War, dropships were retrofitted with an assortment of weaponry once their stark vulnerabilities were witnessed in the War. These weapons include attached rocket launchers, missiles, and machine guns.

Dropships fulfill the same role they always have, in that they are the only means of getting infantry and vehicles on the battlefield. Once a dropship has been assigned to deploy a vehicle, it will continue to do so despite heavy enemy fire, so it is advised that the landing zone for a dropship is completely clear of enemy forces.

Though dropships make use of their new weaponry in the single-player Campaign mode of Section 8: Prejudice, they do not use them in any multiplayer modes, rendering them vulnerable and reliant on support from ground troops.